Technology Impact on HR Practices

1Technology impact on HR practices
Running head: TECHNOLOGY IMPACT ON HR PRACTICIES
Technology impact on HR practices
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2Technology impact on HR practices
Contents
First: Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Second: The impact of technology on HRM...................................................................................4
2.1 The environmental factors.....................................................................................................4
2.2 Changes in technology...........................................................................................................4
2.3 HR planning...........................................................................................................................6
2.4 Job design..............................................................................................................................7
2.5 Quality of work practices.......................................................................................................8
Third: Recommendations...............................................................................................................10
Conclusions....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

3Technology impact on HR practices
First: Introduction
The business environment represents an important base for contemporary organizations,
including the human resources management (HRM) activities. The internal and external
environments that the HRM have to manage is a very complex process. The internal environment
of HRM includes factors like the organizational mission, objectives and structure. The external
environment of HRM includes factors like the economic, political, social and technological
aspects (Boxall, Ang, & Bartram, 2011).
Michael Hill Diamond company was founded in 1979, currently, it operates 303 Michael
Hill stores and 29 Emma & Roe stores in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States.
The company succeeded in building brand quality over its lifetime (Michael Hill, 2018). It
expanded its operation in Australia since1987 and in 2016, the stakeholders voted for moving its
primary listing in the stock exchange from the New Zealand stock exchange to the Australian
securities exchange. In July 2017, the company employed about 2,820 permanent employees
across its retail sales, administration and manufacturing roles. The company strategic goal is to
grow the wealth of its shareholder over time by adopting the philosophy of controlled profitable
growth (Michael Hill, 2017).
This report concerns with the impact of the technology development on the HRM. It
analyses the major HRM roles of planning, job design and quality of work practices with an
application on Michael Hill Diamond company. Important recommendations to the HRM at the
company are discussed and justified.

4Technology impact on HR practices
Second: The impact of technology on HRM
2.1 The environmental factors
The organizational environment impact on human resource management is continuously
developing. Kane and Palmer (1995), as cited in Genc (2014), argues that environmental factors
have a significant impact on the overall human resource management (HRM) strategy. HRM
plays several roles in the organization that makes it a strategic partner that aligns HR strategies
with the business goals. Also, it develops the business processes and strengthens them through
providing its services. In addition, it fulfills the individual and organizational demand in
managing the change process (Cascio & Boudreau, 2014).
The factors that impact the organizations are internal and external factors; the external
factors include, changes in the international economy, changes in technology, changes in the
national economy, national culture and traditions, industry characteristics, legislation and
regulations, actions of unions, actions of competitors, impact of professional organizations and
HRM staff’s experiences in other organizations. The internal factors include organizational
mission, strategy or objectives, actions of corporate headquarters, the size of the organization,
structure of the organization, priorities of top management, changes in of power and politics and
priorities of line managers. This report concerns with the changes in technology that represents
an external environmental factor (Genc, 2014).
2.2 Changes in technology
Changes in technology significantly and positively impact the business organizations.
They affect the organizational substructure and influence the profits to increase, which is likely
to increase the employees' wages. Also, it facilitates the human resources functions of selection,
recruitment, induction, training and performance appraisal. In addition, international practices